


some princes don't become kings

by Signel_chan



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Birthright AU, M/M, Post-Canon, Rebellion, Revolution, everything can go wrong, three guys in an abandoned shack in the snow what can go wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 22,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24493600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/pseuds/Signel_chan
Summary: As a prince who abdicated his position when his sister took the throne, Leo finds himself in the snowy highlands somewhere in Hoshido with no plans aside from to find a way to survive. The way to survive, however, shouldn't have him rubbing elbows with the very people his former country feuded with, should it?
Relationships: Leon | Leo/Takumi, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from fall out boy's song "stay frosty royal milk tea"  
> also this fic is over two years old, I just never got around to finishing writing it until this past weekend

There had to be some timeline, some universe, out there where this wasn’t the final outcome of the feud between Hoshido and Nohr. This was a cold room, a brutal snowstorm outside, a royal title abdicated for the sake of a sister’s happiness, scores of dead bodies, and no chance of anything going right again. Leo furrowed his brow, pinching the bridge of his nose as he thought about what had happened to put him where he was, an ex-royal hiding for his life in ex-enemy territory (where the ruling party may or may not have known of his current situation, depending on how fast news traveled).

He had fully expected to take the Nohrian throne the moment the dust settled, the king and the crown prince both dead in its wake. The lone obstacle standing between him and being king was Camilla, who had never shown any political desire, any interest in being next in line if something happened to Xander. She should have surrendered, stepped aside and allowed him to do as he pleased.

Instead, Camilla got it in her head that, if she took the throne, she could create a Nohr where no small, youthful girls like dear Elise would suffer, and she succeeded to the position based on age and her well-intentioned beliefs. With the population quickly growing frustrated at who was now leading, the solution was expected to fall on Leo’s shoulders, but there was no way he was going to depose his own sister, nor was he going to harm her in any way. As the voices calling for immediate rebellion grew louder, he couldn’t accept that rebelling would lead to his sister’s demise and his ascent to the throne; he’d lost enough siblings already to war and being the beneficiary of losing the last one he had wasn’t anything a man with pride would accept.

Disappearing in the dead of night with commoner’s clothing and his retainers firmly at his side, he gave up any power he held as prince just so the Nohrian people had no one left to beg to take the throne over their motherly queen. Staying in Nohr wasn’t an option, though, and through his disguising he figured he could take refuge in Hoshido, the royal family there having moved past the ills of war fairly quickly. He had no intentions of interacting with their royalty, however, as he was planning of playing up the role of unassuming commoner, no longer a prince.

This meant that he was having to weather this snowstorm in an unheated, unlit shack, the only place he and his retainers had been able to afford to stay in with their “common” standing. With the wind whipping around them, leaving wasn’t an option, so finding somewhere better just couldn’t happen until the storm had passed. “Curse this weather, when we left Nohr I didn’t expect to find…this waiting for us,” he grumbled, looking out the sole window in the shack. “We’ll surely freeze here before we get anywhere.”

“Were we truly planning on going elsewhere?” Ears perking up at the sound of his lord’s voice, Niles gave him a half-lidded eyeroll that wasn’t able to be seen in the dim light. “Seriously, were we? Never would have guessed, thought we were expecting to die here.”

“Your sass is not appreciated right now, you were entirely aware the plan was to leave here the moment we could!” Muttering something over the sound of Niles apologizing, his attention turned away from him and back to the window. The choice to bring his retainers hadn’t been his own—they forced themselves into the journey the moment they found out about it, much to his dismay. They had been nothing but trouble since they’d left, with Niles running his mouth in increasingly snarky ways and Odin…

Wait, it was _only_ the two of them in the shack at the moment, in a raging snowstorm somewhere across the Hoshidan border. As that realization hit him, Leo groaned and banged his fist against the window, the cold glass shuddering beneath his hand. “Oh, figured out that Odin’s sneaked away again, hm?” Niles asked, condescension in his voice. “Must’ve left before the storm got bad, haven’t seen him since I woke up at least.”

“The damn fool’s going to turn up dead,” Leo said, going back to pinching his nose once more. “What does he think he’ll accomplish, disappearing into nothing without so much as a warning? We aren’t staging a search party for him, not in this weather.”

Stretching his legs where he sat on the floor, Niles gave a moan that Leo took as meaning to be agreement on what he’d said. “Yes, yes, I wouldn’t want to risk freezing for his sake, he got himself into this mess, now he can get himself out of it. If he comes back, he’ll be lucky and have two warm bodies to sap the chill out of him.”

“Niles, do us both a favor and never speak of Odin like that again.” Leo’s reply came with a shudder, more bothered with the physical implications of what that would be than the possibility his other retainer would not return. “You and him, you do whatever, but please leave me out of it.”

“Your refusal is only talk, you know you’ll want to join us if we get cold enough in this place.” Niles moaned again, this time as he stretched his upper body. “I know I’ll appreciate the contact when I get it, from you or him.”

“I can promise you, I won’t want to join.”

Niles smirked, rising to his feet and sauntering across the room to drape himself over Leo’s shoulders. “I think you’ll reconsider.”

“Off of me, Niles!” His barking voice caught his retainer off-guard, Niles jumping back and apologizing once more. “No, no more of those half-hearted apologies, you’re only doing it to find a way to misbehave again, you’ve become a nuisance and it’s getting to be too much!”

“Too much? It’s taken until now for my flavor of personality to get to be ‘too much’? You wound me, Lord Leo, cutting me deep.” Niles motioned his hand across his throat, making a slicing sound as he did. “Now step away from the window, take your mind off things, you’re stressing over Odin when you don’t need to be.”

The nonchalance Niles was showing towards the situation was an act, and Leo knew it, but he was just annoyed enough to not call attention to it. “That man’s disappearance is the furthest thing from my mind right now, thanks. I’m trying to figure out where we go from here, once the storm breaks. I’m disgusted by my own relative ignorance to the ground layout of Hoshido, but when would I have ever felt knowing it necessary?”

“You always had a commander to direct you where to go, not usually having to find the way on your own. What a shame that the very commander you miss is the man whose death led us to being in this predicament, hm?” Niles laughed, now walking towards the front door, leaving Leo shaking his head at what he’d just heard.

“Please, it isn’t Xander’s passing that caused for this to happen, we would have been able to remain in Nohr if Camilla hadn’t pulled her stunt like she did. Queen Camilla, ugh! She’ll run Nohr into the ground without someone with common sense telling her what to do!” He was aware that he should have been that exact voice of guidance, but Leo’s decision to abandon the role was because he knew he wouldn’t have been able to be it for her. “We’ll forge our own paths out here now, far away from that headache.”

“For someone who disappeared out from under his last living relative’s nose, you seem rather…eager to be separate from your past life.” Opening the door and allowing the bitter cold and blowing snow to blast into the shack, Niles chuckled at what he’d come up with to say next. “What, did it turn out that the little prince despised princehood that much?”

“You’re being ridiculous, now close the door before you bring us both to our deaths!” Turning to glare at Niles, Leo instead watched as he took a couple steps out into the snow, much to his shock and dismay. “W-what are you doing? Niles! Back in here, now!”

His call fell on deaf ears, the door slamming shut with Niles on the other side of it. Jaw dropping at the reality of being alone in a Hoshidan snowstorm, Leo inhaled deeply before charging to the door, throwing it open to see nothing but the white flakes blowing everywhere. His breath steaming up in front of him as he looked around for any sign of his remaining retainer, he could feel the cold seeping in under his clothes and down into his bones; after calling out Niles’ name a few times to no response he felt he had no choice but to retreat into the shack and hope that one or both of his retainers would return soon.

With no way to determine how much time had passed, Leo tried guessing that everything went down mid-morning, and the storm broke when the sun was just about directly overhead. However, even though the snow might have stopped falling from the sky, but the slightest breeze kicked it up off the ground once more, making going out to explore where they’d gone a boneheaded decision. The world was starting to grow dark when the door to the shack eventually reopened, Niles walking in with snow caked in his hair and clothing. “There’s no sign of that fool anywhere around here,” he said, shaking his body to knock some of the snow off of himself. “In fact, there’s no sign of anyone but us.”

“You scolded me for worrying about Odin, only to step out into a blizzard in search of him?” There was no chance of admitting that he’d gotten worried that he was going to be left alone for the rest of his days, but the emotions that possibility had risen within Leo were impossible to ignore. “You’re insane, simply out of your mind! What if you hadn’t managed to find your way back? Abandoning your lord! What a concept!”

Running a hand through his hair to properly clear it of snow, Niles chuckled at the reaction his behavior had earned. “I only call you my lord out of habit, I hope you know. You hold no position or power over me anymore, don’t speak to me as if you’re still a prince.”

“Did you lose all sense while out in the storm? How dare _you_ speak to _me_ as if you’re my true equal!” Leo wasn’t quite accustomed to the idea that his retainers held the same social standing as him now that he was a former prince that had abdicated his position in line for the Nohrian throne. Or, at least, he wasn’t accustomed to Niles treating him in this manner, because if it had been Odin he would have been ever-so-slightly more understanding, the more outgoing retainer always having acted with more of a proper manner in comparison to Niles’ brash behavior.

“You’ve got a thoughtful look in your eyes, don’t tell me you’re regretting fleeing like we have.” A pause, as Niles took his wet clothing odd, stripping down to nothing but his smallclothes. “You miss power and position and being large, bossy, and in charge, huh?”

“Impossible, I’ve come to terms with my decision and actions. I was thinking about how I’d put up with your sass if it were Odin giving me his, given his…mutual fondness with Elise.” It was one of the first times he’d said his sister’s name in casual conversation since she’d died, aside from talking to Camilla about her, and Niles could tell in hearing it that it had been painful to say. “They were speaking of pursuing a relationship at some point after everything calmed down, I’m sure her death impacted him nearly as harshly as it did myself. Perhaps he finally snapped and couldn’t stand to be near me without thinking of her, and that led to his sudden disappearance.”

Giving a one-shouldered shrug, Niles first requested a fire to be started through the use of magic before he continued on with the conversation, his chills starting to prevent him from being able to speak. “I can tell you that he intends on returning, he simply felt obligated to find his way somewhere close to home before he bid it all adieu. Something about a dear friend or two that he wanted to give final words to? He was rather unclear in his message when he presented me with it days ago.”

“So he walked out in a snowstorm and you, knowing that he was going to leave, decided to follow anyway? My retainers are idiots and your survival is nothing short of a miracle.” It was the last thing Leo said on the matter, focusing on maintaining the fire he’d started rather than talking about someone who’d willingly left. Not talking saved energy, which was necessary given that the snowstorm had prevented them from being able to stock up on food supplies, and with what few rations they had left with them, it was important to save up in case they really needed something later.

At least, that was what Leo assumed to be the truth, but later that evening, after his clothes had dried Niles pulled what looked to be pre-cooked meals that he’d stolen from someone’s empty house out of his pockets. “Soggy and cold, I’m sure, but edible. Perfect meals for runaways like us, if I do say so myself,” he bragged, offering a third of one of the meals to Leo, who took it with skepticism in his eyes. “There was an unlocked door, led to a storage room, I wasn’t going to leave it unsearched.”

“And there wasn’t anyone there to stop you, because the town’s been abandoned.” Leo’s eyebrows had been raised, his suspicion needing more than a vague explanation in order to fade away. Niles didn’t respond, shrugging as an answer, but beggars couldn’t be choosers in the moment and food wasn’t usually so easily obtained. “I see, you left not to chase Odin down but to grab this. Well, good on you for finding it, but are you really saving a portion for him as well?”

“He may be missing in action, but who knows if he’ll return, and I’d hate to see my dear friend starve because we didn’t save him a bite to eat.” A smirk had formed on Niles’ lips as he held in a laugh that he only released after Leo had taken the first bite of what he’d been offered, cringing at its taste. “Do you not appreciate what I’ve brought for you? All this illegal work to keep my lord alive, and he responds with disgust.”

“It’s just…inedible to a refined mouth,” Leo explained, swallowing down what he’d bitten off and shuddering at the aftertaste. “However, now that we’re living off of what we can find, not what we want, there really cannot be any catering to that taste.” Eyeing what remained of the food in his hand, mushy and bland in color, he sighed. “I suppose it’ll work as today’s meal, but…”

Still laughing, Niles took a bite out of his own food, having nowhere near as violent of a disgusted reaction as Leo had. “Hey now, if Odin were here, he’d be waxing poetic about the dark qualities of this meal, which would either make it better or much worse, I’m sure.”

“How could he make it worse? It tastes like what burning, rotting flesh smells like, completely unpleasant and impossible to redeem.” Taking another bite, Leo figured he’d have just stopped Niles’ train of thought where it was; he was sorely mistaken in that guess and soon found himself wishing he’d never asked his question.

“Can you imagine him spinning those qualities in a positive manner? Talking about flesh and rotting and how that makes him happy?”

The food in Leo’s hand was nearly dropped as he could hear that exact hypothetical in Odin’s over-the-top voice, causing him to shudder harder than he had at the food’s taste. “Do us both a favor and never do that again.”

* * *

In all honesty, there hadn’t been much of a plan beyond trying to take refuge in Hoshido, and with Odin having disappeared once they were there moving on wasn’t much of an option any longer. Leo did not want to abandon one of the two people who’d given up everything to accompany him for the sake of pushing further into former enemy territory, and Niles held faith that Odin would return eventually, so in the small, dreary shack they remained. Each day, one of them would venture out and check the nearby area for any sign of their third man, also gathering whatever food and information about current affairs that was available to them.

Through their searching, they found that they were roughly a full day’s journey by foot from the Hoshidan capital, somewhere that Leo wanted to remain far away from. “The only thing that comes from interacting with their royalty is knowing for certain what nonsense Camilla has brought to Nohr, and how they expect me to go back and fix it,” Leo reminded Niles immediately after they’d found out their actual location. “That isn’t happening, no matter how much they beg for it.”

“Yes, of course, we all know how much you love your sister. So fond of her, you abandoned her when she took the throne!” Niles stroked his chin in thought, thumbing over rough, unkempt facial hair he’d insisted on growing since their disappearance. “Going back to Nohr at the request of the Hoshidans ends with removing her from power through death, doesn’t it? Not because they want that, of course, but because there’s no other way.”

“That’s why we left, I’d rather my sister not be expected to die at my hands. She wanted the power, who am I do deny her what she wants?” He would have been a sensible, dedicated prince to do it, but his fondness of his sister overrode his desire to become king, if only barely. “Now all we need is Odin’s return and we can find ourselves getting further from the capital, and further from the request to go back.”

It was a lovely thought, the idea of Odin returning, but while their searches had given them information on their location, it hadn’t developed a single lead on if or when that was possible. All they had what was he’d told Niles before he’d left, that he wanted to tell one or two people goodbye before leaving permanently, but where those people were they didn’t know. Leo had the sinking feeling that Elise was one of the two, but what good was _that_ goodbye going to do? They’d all had to say it already, dwelling on her death wasn’t going to get anyone anywhere fast, And saying a last goodbye to her meant returning to Nohr on his own, which there was no guarantee he’d survive that, being a retainer for the ex-prince.

“You know, the people here speak often of the royals coming to visit,” Niles remarked a few days later, after yet another fruitless search for hair or hide of their missing companion. “Strangely enough, they only seem to bring it up when staring at me, almost as if—”

“Coincidence. Merely coincidence.” Leo cut him off before he could make a foolish suggestion, bringing his hand to rub at it in irritation. “Why would anyone look at you and know to bring royalty up? You look nothing like you did during the war, there is no way uneducated commoners would be able to guess your affiliations accurately.”

“Well, of course, Lord Leo, there’s no way in hell they guessed it looking at me, the homeless-looking common thug terrorizing their pockets. Now, if this is true and they do know, the man with the displeased sneer and haughty air about him? He’s bound to be how.” Niles could see that Leo was not amused with the accusation, but that didn’t stop him from chuckling. “At a loss for words, it seems?”

Leo’s hand had move from his forehead up to his hair, which he had shorn short before leaving Nohr, although it had already grown back almost to its original length, “If you think they could look at me, in rags for clothing, and guess that I was once prince of Nohr, you must be mistaken. I no longer look like that man, period.”

“You look enough like him to get suspicions raised, I’d think. Just imagine your hair adorned with a crowned band, and your body cloaked in the darkest attire befitting your dark soul, and you could make the case that you are indeed the former prince of Nohr.” Standing before Leo and reaching to cup his chin with a firm hand, Niles found himself getting slapped away, the back of his hand where he was hit immediately stinging.

“Do not touch me, not right now! You’re expecting me to believe that you think the Hoshidan royals are coming here because of me, and you want me to take that quietly?” He didn’t give Niles the chance to respond before he pushed past him, throwing the door to the shack open and storming out into the chilled air of the Hoshido highlands. Another snowstorm seemed to be on the horizon, something that had the people who lived nearby fleeing to wherever it was they camped out when the weather got bad.

It was once again going to be only Leo and Niles having to survive a storm without anyone to interact with aside from each other. He couldn’t believe what he was feeling in that moment, but he had an overwhelming desire to see Odin’s stupid face again. “Why did it have to be you who left, not Niles,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Why are you so attached to my dead sister that you’ve risked your own life to see her one last time?”

There would have been more to be said if a howling wind hadn’t blown through the air, cooling everything down more than it already was. As much as he didn’t want to return to Niles and his smugly waiting face, he knew not going back would raise a whole host of issues for himself. Unwillingly, he turned around and went back into the shack, ignoring whatever it was that Niles wanted to say to him so that he could sink down into the corner and merely think on everything he’d been through in recent memory.

Closing his eyes, he could see Xander and Camilla and Elise and himself, all happy and unaware of what cruel fate was waiting for them at the end of the conflict with Hoshido. Two of them dead, one dead to the Nohrian people, and one disappeared from their post. With closed eyes was the only way he could be with his _actual_ siblings anymore, but there was nothing that could be done about that. If anyone was to ask, he had no one in his life outside of his “friends”, even if one was missing and the other was a nuisance.

The snowstorm hit overnight and was gone by morning, but due to the wind neither of the men were able to sleep. Once the storm had subsided they gave it their best attempt, but the plan was thwarted by someone—or something—at the front door. “For the love of everything, let it be Odin having rejoined us,” Leo said as he pulled himself off of the small cot-like bed he and Niles had both been laying on (something he hadn’t remembered ever doing). “That way, we can fall asleep knowing he’s safe and sound.”

“If he’s back, he gets middle to warm up,” Niles replied, sitting up on the bed to watch what was to happen. “I’ll do the honors of covering him, since we both know you’re above that.”

Rolling his eyes, as he recognized he was being mocked, Leo approached the door and opened it without a second thought, expecting it to be his retainer on the other side. Instead of blond hair, green eyes, and a wide smile, the person standing before him was wearing a scowl, narrowed eyes, and had blue air that put him immediately on edge. He pulled the door closed, while the woman on the other side shouted that she had “found them”, begging someone to join her.

“Not Odin, I presume?” Niles asked, watched as Leo turned to face him, mouth slightly opened and face going pale. “Er, Lord Leo, your reaction is almost as if you’ve seen a ghost.”

“That’s a Hoshidan retainer out there,” he replied, trying to keep his voice low, but the mere mention of who it was had Niles scrambling off of the cot, looking around the shack in the dim light for a weapon he could wield. “Don’t do anything rash, we aren’t criminals and we don’t need to be punished for your bad behavior.”

Niles froze where he had jumped, looking to Leo with a confused expression. “You mean _you_ want to face whoever’s out there, rather than have me do it?”

“Well, not exactly. I want neither of us to interact with them but given the fact that one of us has to I would prefer it to be myself.” Taking in a few breaths to steel himself for what he was going to do, Leo went back to the door and calmly asked in his loudest voice, “Who are you and what do you want from us?”

Instead of the female voice he’d been anticipating, it was a male who replied to him. “Look, we know it’s a Nohrian prince in here, but we aren’t here to cause trouble. War’s over, you’re not causing harm, we just want to talk, okay?”

“You didn’t answer my question. Who are you?”

The person sighed, grumbling something that Leo couldn’t make out through the door. “This is Prince Takumi and his retainer Oboro, now let us in you Nohrian scum!” the female called out, speaking on her liege’s behalf; the negative title she referred to him with normally would have made Leo less likely to open the door, but her inflection was less angry and more tired, overused, almost as if it was something she said by habit.

Nevertheless, he wasn’t fully convinced on opening the door, especially as he had no reason to not believe they were who they claimed to be, yet their reasoning seemed shaky at best. “How did you find us here? Stalking people who mean no harm to your country is an ugly look for you.”

“I know you mean no harm, you’re living out of a rundown hut in the middle of nowhere!” Takumi called back, overriding whatever it was Oboro was going to snap in response. “We only found you because the people around here clued us in on your location, we didn’t expect to find you once word broke that you’d fled Nohr.”

“Good to know that’s how the ordeal’s being portrayed, no Nohrian with any sense of self-respect would ‘flee’ from the country they love.” Leo was spitting his words, hating how the people he had grown up as prince of now most likely thought of him as a coward. “But if you weren’t looking for me, how did you happen to find me?”

“We were in the next village over, helping with rebuilding part of their community after the way. Before the last snowstorm, villagers from here came to seek shelter there and informed us of your possible location, and Oboro and I decided we’d come check. _Right_ , Oboro?” He received a grunt in return, and the exchange between the two felt forced to Leo, almost as if they’d rehearsed it.

He wasn’t the only one who thought so. “You two sound like you’ve planned this to the letter,” Niles said, approaching to stand at Leo’s side at the door. “Tell me, if we open this door, are you going to spear us? Stab us? Slice us? Send arrows through our skulls?”

“Niles, you’re being irrational, I don’t think—”

“Lord Leo, silence yourself! You may no longer be a prince but you cannot let your guard down at these skilled liars! Step aside, I’ll finish dealing with them.” Instead of letting him move on his own, Niles pushed Leo out of the way, taking his place as the person at the door, a short-lived victory as Leo retaliated by pushing him away, knocking him into the door rather than to the side.

“Are you two…fighting in there?” Takumi asked, bringing his ear closer to the door to try hearing what was happening a bit clearer. “It’s just a friendly check-in, there’s no reason for you to fight over it!”

“Will you just listen to the man and accept he’s not here to cause us any harm!” In return for being pushed into the door, Niles had wrapped an arm around Leo and was trying to choke him into submission, which had led to Leo yelling at him further. “Look, I cannot say I would usually put faith in a Hoshidan prince’s words, but we aren’t here causing issue and he’s not hurting us!”

Niles let go of him, brows furrowing in frustration. “Yes, of course my lord, he’s not hurting us because he hasn’t gotten to us yet. Watch, the second you open the door and let them in, they’re going to pull out all the stops in arresting or murdering us.”

“Telling him your thoughts so loudly while we’re still out here is just showing us how much you distrust us,” Oboro remarked, “but you do you, I suppose.”

“Let’s just put all this bad blood to rest and face each other like grown adults.” There was exasperation in Takumi’s voice, the arguing back and forth having gotten on his nerves. “We are freezing out here just to check on you two and this is how you’re repaying us! Open the door before something bad does come out of this.”

It wasn’t the vague threat that made Leo decide to go through with opening the door; it was the call-out to how cold they were on the other side. He wanted them to see how they were faring in the shack, with no insulation and having to rely on magic to sustain any sort of heat. He wanted them to know that they were surviving, not thriving, as they hid out in the Hoshidan highlands.

The door opened slowly at first, before being thrown aside fully to break the barrier between the two sides. The pair on the outside looked to be about the same as they had during the war, albeit a bit weather-worn from being a large part of Hoshido’s recovery from destruction. They were now staring at a former prince and his retainer, both of whom had changed their appearances to try and get by without being discovered. There was silence as the two sides sized each other up, no one wanting to be the first to speak as they now were.

“You really didn’t want anyone to find you out here, did you?” Takumi asked, cracking a smile at what he was seeing now that he’d had time to process it. “Never did I think I would see a prince of Nohr looking so unkempt! Ryoma would find this sight humorous to imagine, let alone see for himself!”

Leo flinched at hearing the Hoshidan king’s name. “I would prefer to not have to face your brother in this situation, that feels like a courtesy offered to royals who didn’t abandon their post and their country.”

“Fair, fair, I just figured you would want to personally tell him your reasoning for taking refuge in our country when yours seems to really need you.” Takumi’s smile faded as fast as it had appeared, while Oboro next to him was continuing to scowl at the men. “But I understand, you want nothing to do with all that, so…”

“This is where we leave now, correct?” Oboro grabbed Takumi’s arm and started pulling him closer to her, slightly away from the opened door. “Come on, we shouldn’t bother them any longer, they clearly don’t need us to help them, but you know who does? Actual Hoshidans! So let’s _go_ , hm?”

Takumi didn’t seem to be fazed by her behavior, although her blatant bias against Nohrians was making the two in the shack visibly uncomfortable, both of them inching away in case she lashed out. “If you two want to go, we will gladly go on with our lives without you,” Niles said, reaching to grab the door so he could close it, but Leo prevented him from doing so. “What? Why do you insist on facing them like this?”

“Call it a hunch or intuition, but something tells me turning them away at this point will spell doom for us both. Come in, see the life we have chosen to lead outside of Nohrian borders.” This was Leo’s chance to let someone know he was alive but relatively barely so, with no comforts of home to sustain him. Takumi took the offer without hesitation, and Oboro followed once she saw what her liege was doing; once they were both in the shack, Leo allowed for Niles to properly close the door on them all.

“This is some place you’ve got here, isn’t it?” There was clear shock in his voice as he asked his question, Takumi looking around at the empty, almost barren shack with narrowed eyes. “What made you think that living somewhere like this was necessary? This is, you know, a lot worse than what anyone deserves.”

The words struck Leo’s nerves more than he was sure they were intended to, and he had to take a few breaths to calm and collect himself before responding. “I am aware that it isn’t something befitting a royal, but do remember that I _am_ no longer a royal and—”

“That’s not what I said, I said this is worse than what anyone deserves, peasants, royals, whoever, it doesn’t matter. You have to let us help you, like we’re helping our native people.” Oboro gasped at Takumi’s words, while the two Nohrian men looked between each other, surprised at the genuine-sounding offer that had just been made. “The least we can do is treat you like you’re from Hoshido and give you our kindness.”

“And you’re offering what, a visit to the king?” Leo replied, wanting to prevent the conversation from going in circles in regards to refusing and offering assistance. “We are not leaving this place right now, no matter how much you choose to beg for us to. Even if your offer isn’t taking us to your brother, we still aren’t leaving.”

Pursing his lips together in thought, Takumi leaned his head to the side for a few moments before righting himself, still thinking about what to say. “Good, this means we can be done with these people, right?” Her question was rude, but it had been clear from the start that Oboro hadn’t wanted any part of the interaction; Takumi raised a hand and gave her a motion to silence herself so that he could speak, much to her dismay.

“You said ‘right now’, which means you might leave with us in the future, doesn’t it?” he asked, watching Leo intently for any reaction. “I won’t force you to go right now, sure, but really, in the future will you? If we came back next week would you come then? Two weeks? No matter how far out, if we came back would you come with us so we could give you somewhere better to stay?”

“Eager to move us somewhere on your terms? What a surprise.” Now it was Niles talking over his lord, who had locked eyes with Takumi somewhere in the middle of his offering and was mulling over the terms presented. “You’ll shove us away like criminals, which we aren’t in this situation, and send your royal family after us for doing nothing wrong.”

“We will go with you upon your first check-in after our companion returns, under the explicit agreement that we are not enslaved or imprisoned when we do follow you.” Leo’s words were chosen carefully, voice raising as Niles and Oboro both started kicking up objections. “Anywhere, barring a prison cell, would be better than this desolate hell, but we cannot go until Odin returns to us.”

He held out a gloved hand towards Takumi for a handshake to make good on the terms, but before it could be accepted Oboro stepped in between them, her back facing Leo and Niles. “You can’t be serious about wanting to take them somewhere else, they’re Nohrians! They are disgusting, vile, horrible…”

Her voice trailed as Takumi shook his head at her, giving her the cue to stop speaking. “The war is over, Oboro, you have to accept that, and we’re working to build bridges, not burn them.” In order to follow through with the handshake, he had to reach around her, but Takumi intended on proving his honest intentions on the matter. “We’ll come check on you here in a few days, let’s hope your friend gets back in the meantime so you’re not stuck here much longer than that.”

They left not long after the handshake was completed, the agreement that had been made fresh in everyone’s minds for better or worse. “So now we wait for Odin’s return, don’t we?” Niles asked, annoyance at the whole situation audible in his voice. “What a shame that it looks unlikely he’ll ever return, not after as long as he’s been gone.”

“Have faith, Niles. I know Odin, I know he’ll find his way back to us one way or another.” The question of how long it might be until that happened was not one Leo wanted to vocalize, but he knew it was on the tip of both of their tongues.

* * *

At least once a week, Takumi and Oboro would show up at the front door, surprised the offer was still not ready to be proceeded with, even after more storms rolled through, beating and battering the little shack almost to destruction. The insistence on staying until their last person returned was almost insane in those conditions, but the two Hoshidans weren’t going to force their hand and make the others feel captured or trapped. They were going to let these men go down with their shack and their beliefs, and Leo and Niles were fine with that decision as abandoning Odin was not something they were planning on doing.

Thankfully, they knew they weren’t going to have to wait forever, even if it had started to feel like they were after the storms had pushed the shack to its limits. With every small gust of wind, it felt like the walls were swaying and about to collapse in on them, making the place absolutely unlivable. But leaving meant giving up on his return, and neither of them wanted to do that if he really was going to come back looking for them. Each and every creak in the wood would keep them awake at night, wondering if the roof was about to fall in or if someone was outside and waiting to be let inside.

So it was quite a surprise as they were laying down to sleep one night and what kept them awake was not the creaking and the wind, but rather what sounded like a piercing shriek in the night air. “That was a person, I guarantee it,” Niles said, getting up off of the cot and grabbing his bow before heading to the door. “I’ll check the perimeter, you just worry about keeping whoever’s out there out if they trying getting in.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to be the one to go out? It’s dark, you’re using arrows, my magic would hit its mark much easier, I’m sure.” Niles clearly wasn’t listening for anything Leo was saying, as he was already out the door when the thought was finished, but he was back in a matter of moments, much to his lord’s amusement. “What, were you unable to make your shot? Figured as much.”

“No, if I had wanted to I certainly could have, but trust me, I had no reason to want to.” He was holding the door open, inviting the person outside to follow him. “That sound was caused by easily the most surprising thing I’ve seen out here, and you know we’ve both seen some things.”

“On with it, Niles, we don’t have all night.”

Niles looked over his shoulder, back out into the darkness. “Don’t know if you heard that, but Lord Leo is getting impatient on your arrival. Can’t keep him waiting forever.”

Laughter came from outside, accompanied with another shriek that sounded less ominous and more amused, specifically like a young child enjoying themselves about something. After a split second of confusion as to what was going on, it dawned on Leo that he’d read a previous interaction all wrong. When he had found out that Odin had left to say goodbye to someone, he’d figured it had been his sister that was being spoken of; he’d never considered that it could have been someone still alive.

Of course, he soon found out that _that_ assumption was partially wrong as well. “I’m sorry I gave very little forewarning regarding my departure to you,” Odin said in apology as he entered the shack, Niles greeting him with a quick hug before he made his way over to Leo’s side. “It was eating at me that we left Nohr without allowing for a proper farewell to a good friend, and I couldn’t leave the love of his life behind without me.”

All attention went back to the doorway, where a heavily-bundled woman stood, removing a scarf that she had wrapped around her head, exposing both her shortly-chopped hair and her scowl. “You’re telling me we traveled all this way to come stay in a place like this?” she asked, voice equal parts snappy and tired. “I could’ve stayed in that town and lived a happy life without having to do all this, I hope you know.”

“Sorry, Selena, but I wasn’t abandoning another life without you along for the journey. At least I didn’t bring you from the start, you’d have hated some of the more perilous parts of escaping Nohr.” Odin was smiling at her, but there was obvious fear in his eyes.

“And that’s appreciated. Ugh, seriously though, where are we supposed to sleep? The three of you better be giving up all claims to that cot there, I’m tired and I am done sleeping on floors.” Tossing her scarf aside, Selena was now working on getting her layers of coats off, one at a time, as the door was closed behind her to solidify her now being part of their little group. “Okay, on second thought, one of you can sleep up there with me, someone’s got to help me keep Soleil from rolling off in the night.”

As she said the child’s name, she removed the last jacket that had been protecting the baby from the bitter cold, exposing how she was tightly bundled to her mother’s chest. “You know I’ll do the honors,” Odin told her, before his arm was grabbed by Leo and he was pulled down into him. “Ow, okay, what is it? You’re not usually so grabby!”

“Bringing a friend, especially one you’ve always spoken so highly of, is no issue, but involving a child in our exploits? Did it ever cross your mind that perhaps this isn’t the best place for an infant?” Leo’s grip on Odin’s arm tightened, tugging him closer. “What were you thinking, doing this without any sort of discussion beforehand?”

“I knew if you knew I was going to do this, you’d tell me I couldn’t or forbid me from leaving or something like that, and I needed to say that goodbye and I needed to not abandon Selena when I was done with it.” Odin tried wrenching his arm away, but Leo’s grip had not loosened and he couldn’t escape. “You can’t blame me though, she’s my friend! Abd asking her to leave behind the last part of someone so she could come with wasn’t happening!”

That was what caused Leo to let go, the reminder that the child that had just entered their little shack was the only piece of someone that woman had causing him to rethink his stance. “Fine, the child stays, but if any of you think I am sleeping on the floor to accommodate her, you are gravely mistaken.”

“Fair enough, you can help me keep her in the bed.” Selena had been listening to what they were saying as she’d been continuing unbinding Soleil from her chest, the little girl getting restless and squirming around in her mother’s grasp. “I’m sure that she’ll enjoy getting to have all these new men around, seeing as the first one she got to have was Odin of all people. Maybe she’ll pick up some royal decency from you.”

Her words were biting, and Odin at least partially took offense to hearing them, but Leo felt a strangeness rising within him at the idea that he was going to become a father-like figure to a child he hadn’t actually met before. “Thank you for your belief in me, but I’m not entirely sure she can learn anything useful from a prince who fled his title.”

“She’s a baby, she doesn’t care about the details of that,” Selena replied, heading to sit on the edge of the bed with Soleil in her arms once they were both completely unwrapped. “I don’t even care about that. You were smart to get out when you could, if I were still Camilla’s retainer I would’ve tried smacking sense into her long ago before she got to this point.”

“She’s really trying to get all of Nohr to see things her way, and it’s never going to work out for her. Even in the outset village where Selena was living, talk of wishing for rebellion was everywhere.” Odin shifted where he still stood, as he recalled what he’d seen and heard on his brief return to the country. “Apparently her current retainers are talking of staging the desired rebellion themselves, which we really should’ve seen coming.”

“Oh yes, when you have a former assassin and someone who loves to kill working under an unintentional tyrant, that’s the natural outcome.” Smiling at the thought, Niles had to change his tune when the three other adults looked at him in disgust. “The real fear of remaining in Nohr was that combination being in any sort of position of power. There was never any guarantee that Beruka or Peri wouldn’t slit all of our throats in the night to prevent us from taking action.”

Just the thought of either of those women harming them or the person currently employing them made Leo feel sick to his stomach, hating the mental image of his sister dying that flashed before him. “Enough of these vulgar discussions, what Camilla is doing is her own decision and I want to hear nothing more of it! Please, let’s just get some sleep and hope the Hoshidans come back for us in the morning.”

“Hold on, the Hoshidans? Did you get in trouble or something?” Based on his question, it was clear that Odin needed to get caught up on what had happened in his absence sooner rather than later, and so despite the late hour they all proceeded to stay away for hours longer, discussing the current state of affairs there in the highlands. And when sleep did come, it was just as restless as all previous nights, except now with more people present to add to the rustling and jumping at every noise.

Morning came and with it came no sight of the people who’d been coming around to check on them. By late afternoon they still hadn’t come back, which now that their offer was ready to be taken up on it was almost painful for them to sit and wait for their return. “Should I go out and look for them, so we can get out of here sooner?” Niles suggested, itching to get out of the shack just as much as Leo was, although he knew that he was the only one foolish enough to go out as well as know who he was looking for. “We could get to wherever they want to take us faster if you let me go.”

“I’m not letting this group fracture itself once more, despite good intentions. They should be here tomorrow if not tonight, we just need to remain patient and stay strong in our beliefs that they will arrive.” Leo’s response was entirely expected, given how long they’d waited the last time someone disappeared; however, in saying it he had forced himself to be open to a second round of questions about why he was “falling” for the tricks of the Hoshidans, which was an understandable conclusion to come to when the person asking had missed the specific nuances of every check-in thus far.

It was another night spent staying awake far too long, explaining why it was that they’d grown to believe that the Hoshidans meant no trouble. Coming to terms with the idea that, since they were not enemies nor were they meaning to do anything harmful, the Hoshidans that had visited with them were treating them with kindness was more difficult for one of the two having this explained to them, but she was justified in her hesitation. “They _killed_ people we care about,” Selena reminded everyone, holding Soleil close to her as she spoke. “If it wasn’t for them, my daughter would know her actual father, you know this, right?”

“Yes, we are more than aware of that, they are just as responsible for his death as they are the deaths of many others dear to Nohr, but we cannot hold grudges when the other choice is to starve here in this shack.” Voice sounding tired as he explained, Niles looked at Selena for a moment before shaking his head. “If you wish to die, I have no qualms with it, but for the rest of us, believing in that prince and his retainer is what we need to do to live.”

“Whatever, I highly doubt that they’re going to actually do anything for us once they see how many of us there are.” Selena’s reply came with an eyeroll, one that Niles was more than happy to reply to with a dirty gesture that made her sneer at him. “No, I don’t think you get it, they were happy to help _you two_ out, when they see that there’s a baby here with you they aren’t going to—”

“Stop fighting, right this instance. I understand that trusting people who were once our enemies is a difficult decision to make, but if I’m able to push past what they did to my family then the rest of you can do the same.” Sitting against the wall, hearing it creak in the otherwise silent night, Leo heard the combatants both draw breath before giving in to his request, dropping their argument where it was. “Now let’s just hope later today’s the day of their return, I foresee us being smashed in this building if we have to stay much longer.”

While the conversation didn’t fully end right there, what followed was a lot calmer and more reserved than the snappish arguing that had been taking place. Sleep came for them eventually, everyone curled up on the bed or right next to it, trying to stay as warm as possible for yet another night there in the shack, and with morning’s light came the realization that Leo’s words were coming rather close to proving themselves true. As they’d slept, the walls had shifted, now leaning the entire building to one side. Staying there wasn’t going to be an option beyond the next couple of days, if even that long, and their escape from the shack relied solely on the Hoshidans making good on their word.

The first clue that someone was waiting for them outside later that day came when muffled voices could be heard on the other side of the door, questioning whether or not it was possible for anyone to still be residing in the shack. At the sound of the first knock, which made the entire building shudder and come ever closer to collapsing in on them, everyone inside crowded around the door, all of their meager belongings packed up and ready to go with them if it was their salvation on the other side. The process of opening the door was arduous and led to more movement in the walls, but when it was opened up just enough to see who was on the other side, and Takumi’s stern face was what was waiting for them, they wedged it open enough to get everyone outside without any more trouble.

“There’s a lot more of you that we were expecting,” he remarked, looking past Leo and Niles to see the two other adults and the baby bundled up with one of them. “Shouldn’t be an issue once we get you to where we’re taking you, but until then it might be a bit crowded every place we stop on the way.”

“More traveling, exactly what we need,” Selena grumbled, before Odin lightly punched her and got her to look at him, a pleading gaze in his eyes that made her change her tune. “I mean, yay, no longer being stuck in this hellhole, but seriously, I’m tired of traveling. I want to get somewhere to stay and, you know, stay there.”

“She’s a bit of a feisty one, isn’t she?” Coming up behind Takumi with two large rolls of some sort on her back, Oboro was at least trying to keep a smile on her face as she looked at Selena. “I wasn’t aware there was a woman with them, now I’ll have some company while we travel, I guess.”

“Good job looking at the positives, I wasn’t sure you’d ever come around to helping escort these Nohrians to safety. Now, let’s get the introductions of all of us out of the way, since we’ll be traveling together for the near future, and then we can get into what we’re going to be doing.” True to his word, everyone in the group who wasn’t already known fully by both sides had to introduce themselves to who didn’t know them, which included a lengthy disruption involving Soleil and how it was harmful and borderline stupid to have a baby there in the unknown.

After that was settled and everyone knew very well that the baby was fine and she wouldn’t be any sort of a hassle for the group, Takumi got into laying out the plan for what they were going to do now that they were all together, involving crossing a fair amount of land in a short amount of time, to beat another storm to wherever it was they were going. He remained coy on the exact location they were being taken to, only insisting that it wasn’t a prison or anywhere they’d be considered captives, which raised suspicions but not enough to need to be called out in front of everyone. The specific question of where it was they were going could always be asked once they were on their way there.

The last thing that happened before they headed out was after the first part of the group, which consisted of Oboro, Selena, and Niles (who only went because he wanted to stretch his legs and see if he could steal anything else before leaving the village forever), had started to get a move on. “We really did come get you at the last possible moment, but we were so close to finishing up the restoration work where we were that we decided to finish it first, sorry about making you wait so long.” Sounding genuinely apologetic, Takumi glanced at Leo, who was scowling at the sight of the shack from the outside. “What’s the matter, you want to watch this place burn or something?”

“You read my mind, if we’re being honest.” Next to him, Odin was already grabbing a tome, looking excited at the idea of setting fire to the shack, but Leo hadn’t moved an inch in doing anything of the sort. “We could have died in there, multiple times, if it weren’t for you and your uncharacteristic kindness. What is your goal with all of this? To say that you caught the missing prince and brought him to justice?”

“To help someone that we happened to stumble upon in a bad place, it’s nothing dark or dirty like you’re trying to make it.” Seeing that Odin was nearly bouncing where he stood with the desire to cause destruction, Takumi laughed, gesturing towards him. “Go on, both of you, burn the building down before it collapses on itself. The ground’s got enough moisture in it that the fire won’t burn too much more than just the shack itself.”

Even with the encouragement, all Leo could bring himself to do was spit at its front door before turning to walk down into the village in an attempt to catch up with the other half of the group. “More for me then, I suppose!” Odin cheerfully said, before casting fire magic at the tilted walls of the building, it quickly coming alight with the powerful flames. As he applauded himself for the destruction he’d caused, Takumi couldn’t help but feel like something else was going on there that he needed to address.

That led to him turning wordlessly away from Odin and the fire to chase Leo down, catching him halfway down the path to the village. “I know we don’t know each other very well, but something’s bothering you, I can tell it is. Mind telling me what’s up with you, so we can get over it together?”

“It keeps coming to turning my back on the place that’s sustained me and watching it burn to the ground, and I’d rather choose to let it stand on its own legs even if it deserves to burn.” Leo gave a deep sigh as he could hear Takumi’s mouth quietly repeating what it was he’d just said, trying to make sense of it. “I’ve allowed for Nohr to burn to the ground once more, I couldn’t do the same for the shack even if I wanted to. It’s a complicated matter, I wouldn’t expect you to understand how I feel right now.”

“You’re right, I can’t say I understand it at all. But what I do understand is that what’s happened back home that you’re running away from is something that’s really eating at you, and I…well, I’m not going to tell you to go back and deal with it, but I am going to tell you that it’s not your fault.” They came to a stop in the middle of the quiet village, not a single person not in their group outside (although faces could be seen in windows, villagers looking out at the prince and the people who’d been hiding in the abandoned shack that was now a burning pile of planks). “I just try to imagine something happening to Ryoma and me taking the throne over Hinoka even though she’d be better suited for it. I’m not saying that I’d make a bad ruler, of course, but I’m not cut out for that sort of thing. Too emotional.”

“Are you attempting to make me feel better about setting my sister up for failure and death by not wanting any part of her reign of destruction, or are you trying to tell yourself you deserved to be king over your brother?” Leo shot Takumi a deadly glare before stomping off forward once more, leaving Takumi to throw his shoulders forward as he heaved a sigh, unsure of how he was supposed to defend what he’d been trying to do anymore.

“Did you upset Lord Leo or was he already pretty upset before you got to him?” Odin asked, coming up behind Takumi and nearly causing him to draw his bow in a panic. “H-hey, I’m a good guy here, even though you just let me destroy property. Shack’s all taken care of, now we’re gonna go, right?”

“Something like that, sure.” Responding only because he felt he had to, not because he wanted to, Takumi allowed for Odin to go on ahead of him as well, leaving him as the last person in the group to make their way through the village. Having Oboro up at the front was acceptable, as she knew where it was they were going just as well as he did, but walking alone probably wasn’t safe for him to be doing, being a prince and all. But if it wasn’t safe for him, what did that mean it was for Leo, who was also a prince but insisted he no longer was, and was from a country that everyone in this part of Hoshido most likely hadn’t stopped viewing as an enemy? He was transfixed in watching the dark-robed man ahead of him, walking by himself and keeping his distance from everyone ahead of him, including making sure Odin stayed far away from him as he walked.

While coming and rescuing these people from the exile they’d forced themselves into was entirely a friendly gesture, Takumi couldn’t help but feel like it was going to turn into something else entirely if he kept at it too long. He could only hope that it’d become a positive thing and not a negative one, but that wasn’t going to be entirely his decision to make in the end.


	2. Chapter 2

Their traveling took nearly a week, nights spent huddling in tents that weren’t built for so many people or winter temperatures and days spent going through wilderness and villages alike. The Hoshidan people seemed happy to see Takumi and Oboro as they passed through but were hesitant at best when it came to the others they were with, especially Leo as they recognized him for what he used to be. There was no issue of violence however, which came as a blessing because news of starting fights in small villages would make its way back to the capital and to the king without any context, and the last thing they needed was to cause trouble that Ryoma heard about.

At least, that was the second-to-last thing that Leo thought they needed, a point that he continuously made to Takumi whenever they’d talk about the judgmental looks some of those people gave him. “The only thing worse than causing trouble would be being brought before the king for any other reason, and you need to understand that,” he would say, his lack of desire to meet with the king now that he was nothing more than a commoner in his own mind something that he felt needed to be more apparent than it was. “That is a courtesy given to actual royals, not ones fleeing their birthright.”

“Okay, fine, no friendly meeting with Ryoma, that’s your call and I’ll respect it.” Takumi finally conceded after having to go over the discussion multiple times and getting met with fierce resistance every time. “You know I wouldn’t be taking you to him for criminal charges, it really wouldn’t be anything like that, but you sure are insistent on doing this your way, aren’t you?”

Without hesitating, Leo gave an answer that he was sure could have been seen as controversial. “I came to Hoshido on my own terms and planned to exist her on those same terms, I do not need the sympathy of your family, nor do I need to be reminded of my former royal status by being given such special treatment.”

“It must be horrible to know that all these people around here will know you only as the surviving prince of Nohr, hm?” Piping up from ahead of the group, only listening into what was said because Takumi as involved, Oboro seemed to be disgusted at what she was having to say. “I’m sorry, but if you don’t want us helping you any longer, we’ll gladly leave you somewhere along the road here. Your friends seem pretty keen on coming with us, so it’ll be just you surviving on your own, but you’re fine with that, aren’t you?”

“Oboro, please, he just needs some time and space to accept that we’re helping him, I’m sure if the roles were reversed I’d be just as skeptical of the assistance, even after all the time we’ve spent trying to warm him up to it.” Laughing, Takumi tried to elbow Leo but was avoided completely, as he stepped out of the way to miss being touched. “Oof, I see that maybe I just caused him to close himself off again, we should probably work on that…”

“Of all the people to be invested in getting him to open up, I’m surprised it’s you.” Oboro had slowed down her pace so that Takumi could be walking in line with her as she spoke to him, the entirety of the Nohrian delegation now ahead of them. “If he doesn’t come around soon, why does it matter? He’s nothing to any of us, especially since he doesn’t mean any harm, we really could just throw him out and call it a day.”

“I don’t think that’s the right way to handle him, but I guess I’ll consider it. Get back to leading everyone to where we’re letting them stay, it _was_ your idea to give them this luxury.” As he watched Oboro walk up ahead of him once more, rounding up the others and directing them where to head to cut through the village they were currently in, to finish up their journey to their “new” home, Takumi knew he was looking at the retainers in disgust as he shook his head at them, yet when Leo walked into his view again he didn’t feel as much disdain towards him as the others. Maybe it was his royal lineage, or perhaps his stubborn mindset on what was happening around him, but something was endearing about that so-called former prince, and he wasn’t going to let him out of his sights for as long as possible.

This did require a bit of a change of plans from what he and Oboro had discussed before rescuing the Nohrians from their original living situation, and he dropped them on everyone partway through her delivering the news that they were going to be staying at what had been her family home. “Actually, I think I want to make a change to that,” he said, maintaining eye contact with Leo as he spoke, even though it was Oboro he should have been looking at. “Having all five of these people living unsupervised in your old home? That sounds like a recipe for disaster, not to mention possible revolution planning. We have to split them up somehow.”

Taken by surprise at how her liege had just jumped into her already-agreed upon planning, Oboro allowed for her jaw to drop slightly before she picked it back up, grinding her teeth as she did. “What do you mean, we have to split them up? They were going to get my house and I would be staying with you, remember?”

“I’ve decided that we’ll keep our current living situations as they are, but divide them up between us so we each have two of them to have a watchful eye over.” Giving what he’d said a moment to sink in as something he couldn’t go back on any longer, Takumi glanced over at Oboro and saw that her jaw was dropped again, while all four of the others were watching him with varying levels of confusion in their eyes. “I’ll do the honors of taking good ol’ ex-prince and the bow guy, you can have the other two and the baby. Fair division, I think.”

Holding a finger up as she formulated her thoughts, Oboro charged at Takumi and stopped right in front of him, her face right up next to his ear. “No, it’s _not_ a fair division, you promised me that I’d get to live with you once we brought them here!” she hissed, her breath hot up against his neck. “You’re going back on your word and I’m not going to stand for it!”

“I’m not going back on my word so much as realizing the mistake we’d made,” he replied, pushing her away so she wasn’t crowding him so much. “Now go on, show your new friends where they’ll be living with you until we think of something better to do with everyone, I’m going to take great pride in showing my new friends their home.”

“Living with the Hoshidan prince, not exactly what I was expecting to get forced into doing when we got this so-called ‘help’ from him,” Leo spat, rubbing his fist over his mouth to show his disgust. “At least we can be thankful he hasn’t fully isolated me from the rest of you, isn’t that right, Niles?”

“Hm? Oh, yes, most spectacular that we’ll be living together once more, I’m shaking in my boots over it.” Delivered in a deadpan voice, Niles did not seem to have feelings one way or another about the change in living situation, although the other two involved were talking loudly about how they weren’t sure why they were being separated from the man they’d trusted their lives with when they chose to leave Nohr. The whole debate was getting loud, with Takumi and Oboro resuming their arguing, on top of Odin and Selena trying to get an answer for why they were getting separated out and needing to be louder than the others to even be heard, and Leo could see people in the little houses they were standing near looking out at what the ruckus in the streets were.

He had one instinct in that moment, and that was to pull the hood of his cloak over his head and draw it down as tightly as he could, to preserve his identity from anyone who was now looking at who was causing a late-night noise disturbance. The arguing ceased when people started coming out to see what the disruption was about, and the group split into two so that they could at least make an attempt to get things into their now-normal routine. That night was horrible, starting with when the trio of Takumi, Leo, and Niles showed up outside a plainly-decorated home within view of the castle, home of the Hoshidan king. “Of…course you bring us to near the castle, exactly what we were hoping you wouldn’t do.”

“It’s only until we find somewhere better for you to go, besides, I don’t think you’d want to be stuck in the dingy place Oboro’s taking your friends, there wouldn’t be enough room for all of you to live there comfortably.” Takumi was opening the door, pushing his way into the main room that was just as boring as the exterior had been, and after the others had followed him in he locked the door tightly behind them. “We’re not going to get any closer to the castle than we currently are, not unless we’re requested to go there, that’s my promise to you both. Now, how about we see where you’ll be sleeping? Apologies in advance that they’re cots, but I don’t spend much time here at night so there’s not even a real bed in here.”

“You’re sticking us in the place you use to hide from royal responsibility, can’t say that isn’t fitting.” Crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned up against one of the walls, Niles quickly stepped away when he felt how bitterly cold the wall was. “And now I understand why you don’t sleep here, this is just as bad as the shack was, except perhaps a little less of a death hazard. Are we expected to cuddle for warmth here too?”

“Up to you, I suppose.” Missing the point of what was said entirely, and not noticing the eyebrow waggle Niles made in his direction, Takumi had turned towards Leo, who was still tightly-wrapped in his cloak, having not even removed the hood yet. “As for you, mister prince, are you okay with these living conditions until we find something better, or do we need to go rent somewhere nicer for you?”

That was when Leo knocked the hood off of his head, the fabric having created enough static to cause some of his hair to stand on end without him realizing it. “I suppose this’ll do for now, since you’re insisting it isn’t a permanent fix to the problem we faced up in the snowy village. You’re sure you’re not going to send any of your siblings in here to execute us in our sleep, correct?”

“Now why would I do that? I’m telling you, you’re perfectly safe here, you just need to stop having your guard up like you do.” It was a bit funny to hear Takumi giving the speech, given how anti-Nohrian he’d always been in the past, but his words sounded like he was speaking them from the heart. “I do wish I had somewhere better to let you two stay, but as long as you’re here, I’ll be here too, how about that? I’d say that’s fair, suffering together.”

Shaking his head almost as if he didn’t fully believe what he was hearing, Leo went to say something sarcastic in response but Niles spoke up before he had his thought fully sorted out. “Please, tell me that you have more than enough cots for all of us to sleep in comfortably. Nothing against sharing sleeping space with my lord, but I’ve grown tired of having to sleep next to others. I can’t quite stretch my legs and get comfortable with someone right there.”

“I, er, hadn’t actually thought about how many I’d ever need in here, so I think there’s only two. But if you—” Takumi inhaled deeply and quickly, glancing towards Leo to see if he had any visible reaction to anything that had just been said, but he wasn’t giving away any thoughts through his facial expression in the moment. “—if you really want to sleep alone, I suppose I could share the other cot with Leo for a night or two.”

“I’d rather sleep on the floor than with you,” he spat in reply, before rethinking what he’d just said. “But I suppose if it cannot be helped, a night or two of it wouldn’t be the end of the world. After all, I was sharing a cot with a mother and child for a while, you can’t be any worse to sleep with than they were.”

“Careful, he may make you eat those words,” Niles warned, watching how Takumi had begun to look a bit offended about being compared to a literal child in terms of sharing sleeping arrangements. “Why, you may wake up with feet touching you in inappropriate places if you’ve angered him too much!”

“Niles, do us both a favor and—”

“All these favors you ask me to do for us both, and when do I get to make requests of you?” Tutting as he walked around the room, Niles had his eyes now mostly locked on Leo, with occasional glances towards Takumi to make sure he didn’t get annoyed with what was happening. “Let me take initiative and ask you to do _me_ a favor, and not ruin what we’ve got going for us just because you enjoy being difficult. If you ruin my chance to get close to some Hoshidan locals, as well as possibly settle a long-dying score, you’ll wish you never had.”

Taking a second to sputter as he tried to come up with a fitting threat (as well as ignore the chuckles Takumi was giving at the way he’d been put on the spot), Leo snapped back with, “Is that any way to talk to your prince and employer?”

“We’ve been over this before, Leo. Do not speak to me as if you hold title or rank over me, you’re on the same footing as I am.” After a tense moment where the air felt frozen, suffocating almost, Niles headed for the door, opening it without hesitation. “I’ll be back in a few hours, need to clear my head of some things before I return. There better be an open cot for me when I get back.”

He was gone before either of them could say a word, but without his return guaranteed the two men made it a point to not share a cot with each other. That did result in Leo getting woken up in the middle of the night by being pushed off and onto the floor, but in the choice between that and sleeping with someone who once recently was an enemy, he felt he’d made the smarter option.

* * *

Over the following weeks, a routine was established between everyone involved in the wintry rescue of the Nohrian runaways, which mostly involved Takumi and Oboro trying to maintain normal lives while sheltering the rest of them. Average people were suspicious about who the strangers coming in and out of homes that they knew belonged to proper Hoshidans, but as long as rumors weren’t flying about them being murderers or trying to overthrow the royal family, they didn’t seem to be in any danger. It wasn’t the most pleasant of existences to be leading, but it was leagues better than what they’d had back in the mountains, and even that had been better than what they’d be facing if they were still living in Nohr. It was no secret that in the time since they’d gotten to the Hoshidan capital, the conditions in Nohr had only gotten worse, with word of people trying to rebel and being silenced crossing the border every couple days.

Rather than being worried about his sister’s well-being, Leo was trying to focus more on what was actively important in his life: that was, the strange behavior the people around him were starting to exhibit on the daily. Niles had always been weird, and he was talking more and more of going out and settling his so-called score, while Odin had started to become uncharacteristically quiet whenever he was around his former lord. Selena seemed to be pretty much the same, but she was often tending to Soleil and didn’t have much else to say other than things about her daughter or about how she was kicking herself for abandoning her lover’s final resting place to stay with one of her best friends. “So is this what the four of you do every day when we’re out and about?” Oboro asked after watching in on the group at her house one afternoon, seeing that none of them were interacting and didn’t really have anything to do. “Maybe we should look into getting you freeloaders some local jobs, bet the handymen would love some able-bodied assistance.”

“I’d prefer if you didn’t call us freeloaders, we tried to refuse your assistance when you offered it,” Leo reminded her, rolling his eyes when she mocked his words. “You’re despicable, I hope you know. Can’t say how thankful I am that Takumi allowed for me to stay with him rather than anywhere near you.”

“Yeah, he sure is the greatest, isn’t it?” Giving a dreamy sigh and ignoring that she’d just been called anything negative, Oboro jumped right into the middle of where everyone was sitting, drawing all of their attention to her. “I’ve always loved my liege, but since the war ended he’s been, uh, different? Calmer? Not the same man I was head over heels for, but still someone I’d want to spend my life with.”

“Marrying him would make you a princess, are you sure that’s not why you love him?” His voice quiet, so unlike how he used to act, Odin gave Oboro with a small smile, almost as if he was in deep thought about something that he felt she should know. This became proven as true when he followed that question up. “I know that a few people thought that was why I was so attached to Elise, but the royal thing wasn’t ever really my style. That’s what I came from back before everything, royal lineage and all that.”

“Stop talking,” he heard from both Leo and Selena, one of whom was bothered by a certain name he’d dropped, and the other of whom made her stance very clear very fast. “There’s no reason for you to be talking about what we had before, we’ve got what we’ve got now! That’s all dead to us! Dead, you hear? It’s just like…you know, it’s just like Laslow is. Dead, gone, and something we’ll never have again.”

“Ooh, that’s a name I’ve never heard before.” Tapping her fingers together in front of her face in interest, Oboro focused straight on Selena, who was shaking her head rapidly as if she knew what was coming. “Come on, sweetheart, you’ve never told me much about your loverboy except that he’s dead, now’s your chance to lay it all out there for me!”

Even though it was clear that she did not want to talk about the man she’d loved enough to have a child with him, Selena did end up giving in when Odin told her that talking about how she’d felt would do her some good. “He was an old, long-time friend, who I really got to get close to once we were both working as retainers for different royals in the Nohrian family. Not much to write home about in terms of personality or looks, but damn it, he was my flirtatious asshole and I miss him every time I look in Soleil’s eyes!” She was beginning to tear up, but a friendly hand of assurance was enough to get her to move on. “That’s really all there is for me to tell you, he wasn’t the first person I loved but I doubt I’ll be able to love anyone else after that special kind of something.”

“You said ‘person’, not ‘man’ or ‘guy’ or anything like that, was that intentional?” Invested in what she’d started with bringing up her own romantic preference, Oboro seemed to want to know what might have been implied with Selena’s words, but it was clear that she wasn’t going to be hearing it from Selena herself.

That was fine, because Odin was sitting right next to her, hand on his friend’s shoulder to try keeping her calm. “We might’ve come to blows over a girl or two back in the day. All three of us did, now that I think about it, me and her and Laslow all seemed to end up wanting to be with the same person at the same time.” He laughed, leaning his head back as he looked up towards the high beams of the ceiling in the room. “I remember this one time, where we were all arguing about which of us should get the chance to flirt with someone and she ended up walking right in front of us. Pretty sure I still have a lump on my head from how hard she beat me up after that one…”

“When did this become talking about romantic preferences? I must’ve stopped paying attention somewhere in the middle of it all.” Feigning a yawn to show that he was bored with what he was listening to, Niles leaned forward where he sat until he was nearly laying flat across his own legs. “At any rate, we all know that _my_ interests are more entertaining than either of theirs, especially now that I’ll have a chance to properly make my greatest desire my own for a night or two, once I can find him.”

A sense of dread began to take hold within Leo, as he heard everyone start asking Niles who it was he was speaking about, and he hoped that nothing more would be said on the matter. It just so happened that Niles understood that whatever he was going to bring up was a touchy subject and he left it exactly where he had, not wanting to step on any toes with whatever he could possibly say. “Okay, yeah, Niles intends on sleeping with some guy and then probably killing him after, that’s cute,” Oboro said, tapping her chin with one finger as she thought about how to respond. “I’ll just not tell Takumi or anyone with power that you’re intending on murdering someone within our borders, as our little secret.”

“The tone of your voice tells me I should trust you, but the look of utter disgust on your face says otherwise. I’ll go with what you are saying versus what you aren’t.” Niles laughed, tilting his head down so that his face was completely obscured by his hair and his legs. “It’s not going to end in murder unless something goes wrong, in which case it’ll only be a moderate shame.”

“I’ll have to remember that when I’m forced to explain why you did what you did.” Dropping her hand now that she wasn’t too wrapped up in interpreting what someone else was saying, Oboro beamed at the people sitting around her, even if she had a slightly sour face when looking at Leo and Niles. “I suppose this is the part where I say that my love for Takumi does transcend the retainer-liege relationship we have, but I understand that he’s his own man with his own choices, and he can love whoever he wants. But if whoever he wants to love breaks his heart, I’ll break their face.”

“You sound a lot like someone we once knew,” Selena added, while Odin nodded along with her words. “Not saying you are her, because you’re definitely not, but I think the whole ‘I’ll protect the person I like no matter what’ thing just screams her and it…it makes me miss her, honestly.” She gave a fake-sounding sniffle, which drew everyone’s eyes towards her. “I never thought I’d sit here on the verge of tears over a girl I never actually dated.”

“Are you all going to be done with this nonsense soon enough? I think I preferred you all when you were silent and doing your own things.” Acting as if he was done with everyone and everything currently happening, Leo was in the process of standing up when Oboro swung around and pointed a stern finger towards him, startling him into staying where he was. “Excuse me? What do you think you’re asking me to do right now?”

“We’ve all bared our hearts about something, all of us except you. You’re not getting out of this whole conversation without telling us how you feel about someone or something like that.” Her words were spoken as all the attention turned onto him, and he felt like he was being pressured into admitting to something he didn’t agree with or even understand.

Doing what any self-respecting man would do, he refused to speak under the assurance that he didn’t have anything fun to tell them. It wasn’t until he’d made that point several times that Oboro finally accepted it, giving him the warning that he would have to share something about himself at some point in the future, before their entire situation changed. “You assume I bother myself with these kinds of affairs,” he said with a scoff, making her narrow her eyes at him. “Trust me, there has never been someone I’ve loved in a non-familial way, and I’m positive that will never change.”

He was right, in that he didn’t think he was going to fall in love with anyone at any time, especially now that he was living in a country that wasn’t his own, under the control of people who at one time had wanted him dead. Similar conversations to that one came up a few more times after that, everyone else giving a bit more of themselves out for everyone else to understand, yet it was always Leo who wasn’t saying a word on the matter. Between Oboro beginning to accept that maybe she wasn’t going to get her chance with her dream man and that she’d need to start looking at others to be interested in, Niles talking cryptically about the person he so badly wanted, Odin reminiscing about all the ladies he’d lost in the past in one way or another, and Selena slowly getting over her dead lover to remember some of the people she’d also liked in the past, it was clear that they were going to force Leo into admitting something at one point or another.

But was it really “admitting” something if he didn’t actually have any thoughts about what they were talking about in the first place? He couldn’t ever recall a time where he’d romantically been interested in someone, unlike everyone he found himself talking with on the regular, and whenever he had to defend his silence he went back to the point that the only love he’d ever felt had been for family. Bringing that up every time grew tedious, and eventually it became normal to just leave him out of the conversations, allowing for him to listen to what everyone else had to say without the need of thinking about some remark he could make to get them to leave him alone once more.

However, everything changed the first time Takumi was present for their circle discussion of romantic pursuits, as he’d never been asked about it before and there was someone among them who so desperately wanted him to say her name in response. “I haven’t really thought much about liking anyone,” he admitted, grabbing part of his ponytail and pulling his hand straight down it. “It’s not important to me, why should I waste my time falling in love when all they’ll get is being a royal family member who has no chance of ruling, ever?”

“I’m sure that’s what any of Camilla’s former suitors thought about themselves before she went on a power trip.” Speaking without realizing that bringing his voice into the fray would invite everyone to try dragging him into the rest of their conversation, Leo felt it necessary to let Takumi know that he knew someone, not himself, who might’ve once looked at things the same way. “At least now they’ll get to be king consort if they marry her, although at the rate she’s going I doubt she’ll ever get to that point.”

“Funny you mention her, I was just about to ask you if you’d ever heard of that being a mindset within your family.” Takumi laughed, his hand moving down his ponytail once more. “It’s funny, Ryoma’s the only one of us who’s gotten married so far, and I don’t think any of the rest of us will be doing it anytime soon. Hinoka’s focused on more important things than love, Sakura’s still too young for us to let her marry herself off, and I just said that I’d never thought about even liking someone before. But if I was going to like someone, I’d make sure they’re a strong someone who isn’t going to mind being so low in the royal family once they’re part of it.”

“I wouldn’t ever mind at all,” Oboro blurted out, her face reddening as she realized what she’d just said; she had to excuse herself for a few minutes to collect her composure before she returned to them. While she was gone, they’d all continued talking about what Takumi had said, specifically the part about being low in the royal family. Royalty was royalty, even if someone had no chance of taking the throne they were still going to be higher than anyone else in society, so the concept of someone not wanting to marry into the royal family because they wouldn’t receive the highest title seemed far-fetched.

Or, at least it seemed that way to Leo, but after seeing how everyone else understood Takumi’s point he thought that maybe he had a different perspective on things because he was former royalty and had personal experience with some of the intricacies of it. “Why does it become all about wanting to be in a position to get to be of the ruling couple?” he ended up asking, after hearing enough about how people would choose to love someone else because they wouldn’t be getting the perks of being king or queen if they married a lower royal. “Things happen in the blink of an eye when it comes to royalty, and with how you can never be assured who’s going to take the throne next—”

“Are you trying to tell me that that’s how you all look at this?” Takumi sounded confused about what he’d just heard, but as he didn’t sound angry Leo could assume that he was speaking to everyone else present and not him. “I just wouldn’t want to get saddled with being with someone who complained about not being next to get the throne, which clearly all of you would do. Leo’s right, you never know if you’re actually going to make it to be king or not, and you have to love the person for who they are, not what they have.”

“Wow, this got heated rather quickly. Sorry for not wanting to get attached to someone who can talk like they’ll amount to something but never will,” Niles said with an eyeroll, grumbling something else under his breath that no one else heard, as he got to his feet and started walking around the group. “Look, the guy I’m after, he doesn’t talk like that even though I’m sure he could if he wanted to, and that’s what draws me to him. That, and some more…savory parts of him that I’d love to see.”

“You didn’t need to say that, Niles, but thank you.” Holding his hands together in front of his mouth as the chorus of sarcastic apologies filled the air, Leo wanted so badly to make another comment about how he must’ve seen a different side of their conversation because he knew what it was like to experience what Takumi was referring to. He resisted, though, because he had a strange feeling that agreeing was what was expected of him, especially when he realized that Takumi had been staring at him for a lot of the aftermath, almost as if he was waiting for whatever was going to be said next.

Were their experiences as younger brothers in royal families starting to overlap, giving them insight into the other that hadn’t been thought of before? Leo hoped that wasn’t the case, but with how much time he’d been spending getting to know Takumi’s little world perhaps it was for the best that they understood each other better than they had before. “I’m just going to come out with this, but I wouldn’t be opposed to dating someone who already knows they aren’t going to be queen, or king, someday,” Takumi said quietly as he finally pulled his eyes off of Leo, knowing that he wasn’t going to get anything else out of him. “And no, that doesn’t mean I’m looking right now, so don’t even go there, Oboro.”

Without even looking in her direction he’d been able to shut down her straightening how she sat, her slumping back over and getting Selena to lean towards her, whispering something into her ear that made her perk up, eyes narrowed as she thought about what she’d just heard. They were sharing secrets, and if it was anything to do with what conversation they were having it was most likely tips about how to make an obviously ignored attraction less obvious. At least, that was what it came off as, and when they all split up for the night, people apologizing once more for what they had said previously, it seemed as if the two of them were acting more buddy-buddy than usual.

That was even remarked upon by Takumi as the trio of men living together walked into the dark night, him looking back over his shoulder with a laugh as he said, “I never thought I’d see Oboro getting over her issues with Nohrians so fast, or to the level she has. They really did become friends quickly, didn’t they?”

As the people who heard him laughed, none of them were quite aware of what was actually happening back at Oboro’s family home, where she’d been invited into a secret that only two living people had been aware of up until she was included. “So let me get this straight, the two of you aren’t _really_ from Nohr, and you’re considering going home because why, exactly? What’s so bad about here?”

“It’s not that here’s bad, it’s that we’re not living the lives of adventure and excitement we’d been looking for when we left our real home!” Odin answered, while Selena stayed closed-lipped when it came to giving her input. “It’s a miracle you haven’t called us out on our deception before this, given how much you don’t seem to care for Leo or Niles. You must’ve been able to tell from the start that we weren’t natural Nohrians.”

“I could tell something was up, yeah.” It was true that Oboro had felt more comfortable around either of them than she had the former prince or his other retainer, but she’d been chalking it up to personality differences, not that they weren’t who they said they were. “But what does this have to do with anything? You’re not planning on leaving, are you?”

That was when Selena chose to speak, her mouth opening slightly before she let everything on her mind spill out. “I don’t think staying’s really the best for any of us, we’ve got all of you around here but we’re not where we thought we were going to be, with who we thought we were going to be with. I’d rather be dead than here any longer, and I do mean here as in ‘in this world’, not just in your home. If we’re going to not go back to Ylisse, I want to keep traveling elsewhere.”

“Ylisse? You’re telling me that the two of you are from Ylisse, and haven’t bothered mentioning it until right this minute?” The two nods Oboro received made her spirits soar, as she thought about everything she’d heard about the far-off and almost mystical country. “Why would you choose to come here rather than stay there? I’m positive that Ylisse has to be better than Nohr for sure, and it probably makes Hoshido look pretty boring as well, so I guess I get why you’d want out of here.”

Odin and Selena looked between each other, then to Oboro, both of them confused at how she’d reacted to their home location being name-dropped. “You mean you’ve heard of fair Ylisse, home of heroes and legends?” Odin’s question came alongside Selena asking if she was just talking to talk or if she meant anything by what she’d said, so there were two different routes Oboro could take in responding.

When she did speak, she did it in a way to let them both get a reply, but it took several minutes of her considering what there was to say before she said anything. “I’ve heard Ylisse be mentioned a few times, typically in terms of it being a fake country that no one’s ever really been to, but we’ve all known it was real. I never thought I’d meet people who were actually from there, though! Mind telling me _all_ about it, so I can get a feel for what you’ve left behind?”

Since there wasn’t anything else for them to do that wasn’t their usual routine, indulging her in the conversation was completely possible. What resulted was the three of them sharing a secret that was only discussed in private, whenever the other half of their group was not present, and it gave all of them the stronger impression that they’d all become best friends without any reason for it. This was commented on every time they were all together as a whole group, with the three of them (plus Soleil, who was always attached to one of them no matter what) constantly interacting and talking about things that were in line with overall conversation topics, yet seemed to have some hidden messages that they were purposely trying to keep under wraps. No one wanted to call them out on their secret-keeping, but it was clear to those who weren’t included that there was something going on that everyone else needed to stay out of.

For Leo, it was typical to be excluded from things that others were involved in; he’d never really pressed too hard into his retainers’ personal lives back when he’d had power over them and therefore he’d always been left out of what they were doing. For Niles, however, it was odd to see everyone else so wrapped up in their own business without any way for him to slide in and make sense of what was going on. He didn’t mind it too much, and certainly didn’t call any attention to the fact that he was curious as to what had gotten Odin involved in the girls’ conversations, but he was able to use their closeness as a cover-up for what he was planning for himself.

It was the perfect plan, let the other people in the house be more mindful about what was happening where everyone else was staying so that they didn’t pay any attention to what was happening under their own roof. Once he felt that enough of a distraction had been created, he chose to disappear into the darkness one night, causing the others to wake up to find his cot empty with no trace of where he’d gone or what was going to happen to him. The general guess was that he went to “settle his score” that he’d been talking up so much, but no one really knew what that entailed for him and if there was any chance of his return afterward. Leo didn’t care for discussing it much, bothered in equal parts by his retainer walking out on him as well as the fact that he had a sinking feeling that he knew the other person involved in that situation, but as long as it was the hot topic for everyone to talk about, he was forced to suffer through the conversations, just like with the love talks.

There wasn’t a perfect solution to solving the mystery of where Niles had gone off to, and dealing with the fractured group it left behind was nothing short of a nightmare, especially as it was clear that strong divisions had been made. The three living together that were still intact seemed to be closer than ever, meaning that whenever Takumi had to dedicate time to prince duties and couldn’t spend time with everyone else, Leo was left fending for himself against three people who were constantly leaving him out. Add in the fact that he could feel that he was losing all interest in trying to reconnect with any of them, despite being the main reason two of them had left Nohr in the first place, and their time spent together was awkward at best.

With Niles gone and no idea of if he was going to come back, being at the house they’d been sharing with him wasn’t as bad as it had been with him present, as it meant that the two men could have their own cots and living space in the home. That was a godsend for Leo in his current situation, giving him a place to collect his thoughts and try to piece together everything that was happening around him; it was also somewhere that was a clear target for anyone to try attacking if they had it out for the former prince. He didn’t do anything to hide that he was sleeping in one room in particular, spending a lot of late nights in front of the window with candles burning and his eyes turned to the darkened sky, and when he awoke one morning to find an arrow lodged in the shoddy glass of the window he knew that it was meant to hit him.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was a message from Niles to inform us that he’s still alive, but he’d never intentionally try to harm me after everything we’ve weathered,” he told Takumi as they were on their way over to Oboro’s home to meet up with the others. “How strange, though, that it took so long for the murder attempts to begin.”

“Yeah, something about that doesn’t strike me as a ‘murder attempt’, but if it makes you feel any better we can try doing something about it,” Takumi replied, seemingly unfazed at how that conclusion had been jumped to. “If you think you’re going to be murdered, it might just be time to get Ryoma involved, to have him tell us how to go on with you being around here. I can’t protect you forever if you think someone’s trying to kill you in your sleep.”

Shaking his head as he thought about having to face the king himself, Leo wanted to say something along the lines of “I’d rather die than see your brother”, but he stopped when he realized that it might have just turned into a choice between those two extremes. “We can try to solve the problem ourselves without getting him involved, therefore effective immediately I’ll be sleeping in your room, thank you.”

“Way to make your decision for yourself, but we’ll give it a shot. If it happens again, though, we are going to Ryoma as soon as possible.” That whole day, talking to the others and trying to act like nothing had gone wrong overnight, the idea of needing to swap bedrooms lingered in Takumi’s mind, but he tried his best to keep it from being obvious that he wasn’t sure that was the solution they needed. As it turned out, that wasn’t the solution Leo had suggested, because when it came time to turn in for the night, he came into the still-occupied room looking like he was ready to get into the cot—and did so without even asking Takumi to leave the room (and prompting Takumi to take action himself, even though he was fine with sharing the room).

Arrangements for meeting with the king were made in haste, but in the days leading up to when the meeting would happen the men had to keep maintaining the lives they’d made for themselves. Sharing the room had become the standard in that time, even though further attacks on the house hadn’t been made, but Leo had realized that he missed having someone in the room with him, harkening back to the days in the cabin, and sharing space with Takumi filled that void. Unfortunately for him, a new void opened up the day they were meant to have the meeting, as when they went to Oboro’s home to have their daily meeting the place was abandoned. There was no sign of anyone having been there up until the night before, which came off as strange given that they knew that there had been four people living there.

Instead of getting to relax and focus on what needed to happen in the meeting with Ryoma, they found themselves spending the morning looking around the general area of town for any sign of the four, but everywhere they checked seemed to have been completely cleared out by them. There was only so much that could be done without raising suspicions, though, much to both of their dismay, but because of the searching the meeting happened in the early afternoon, slightly later than it had been scheduled to be.

Their tardiness meant that the castle’s throne room was relatively empty when the two men entered it. “It’s stupid that even with all that searching we couldn’t find any of your friends, and Oboro’s missing too, but oh well,” Takumi said with a shrug as he looked around the room, wanting to catch a glimpse of the king before proceeding any further. “I’m glad you’ve changed your mind on coming to do this, I don’t think Ryoma is going to mind too much that you’re here alone and we’ve lost track of everyone you were with. You’re the important one, anyway, and after what happened we really need to discuss things about you.”

“Yes, as it should be, because I’m the runaway prince that he’s going to force back to Nohr, and what will I do when he lays down that law? Disobey him and be put to death?” Leo scoffed, also looking around at the lavish room and remembering the last time he’d been anywhere near the place, when he’d watched Ryoma’s coronation with Camilla and the other Hoshidan royals. Thinking back to that memory wasn’t anything he wanted to do in that moment and he attempted to distract himself by looking straight at Takumi, but the prince was distracted by the lack of appearance of his brother and had started moving closer to the throne, somewhere that Leo didn’t exactly want to follow.

“It seems you two showed up despite the word that you both wouldn’t, how interesting.” The voice came from behind where Leo was standing, and he turned to look over his shoulder and saw King Ryoma standing there, dressed fully in regal attire, and his first instinct was to drop to his knees in a respectful bow. Ryoma laughed at the display, motioning for him to rise back to his feet. “None of that, even if you’re insistent that you’re no longer a royal, I refuse to force you to bow to me. A rightful king doesn’t bow to another.”

Staggering back to his feet, unsure of how he was supposed to respond to such a comment, Leo found himself locking eyes with Ryoma, trying to find some way to tell him that he was wrong in his belief that he didn’t need to treat him with respect. “Hey now, don’t question the king when he tells you something,” Takumi teased as he came back to standing at Leo’s side, smiling at his brother before Ryoma walked past them both, going straight towards the throne to have somewhere to sit while he talked to the others. As they watched him make his move, Takumi tilted his head closer to Leo’s and whispered, “I wonder what he meant about there being word we weren’t showing up, do you think someone stopped by and told him that we weren’t going to be here because of everyone else disappearing?”

“I think he figured I wasn’t going to walk into this lion’s den blindly and wanted to get a second opinion before I followed you in, but was too polite to say so.” Leo’s response was even more whispered than Takumi’s original statement had been, yet they ended up with someone standing right behind them, based on how they each had a hand placed on their upper back, slowly pushing them forward. Both of them gasped when the contact happened, and Leo was considering yelling that he’d been led into a trap anyway, but Takumi grabbed his hand and told him not to say a word, that they weren’t causing any sort of trouble.

“You’re right, you’re in no trouble at all,” a female voice said, sounding tired yet forceful as the speaker talked to them. “I am merely moving you along in this endeavor, I cannot stand around and watch you two hesitate on talking to the king when there’s so much else he should be doing right now.”

Having settled into the throne rather comfortably, Ryoma happened to look towards the two men and the woman pushing them and he called out, “Kagero, unhand them right this instant! Whatever it is you think they’re stopping me from, you’re wrong and you need to understand that this will take a few minutes and we will have the rest of the day to spend doing exactly what you want me doing.”

As the hands lifted off their backs, that was when Leo decided he’d finally turn to see who had been touching him, but there didn’t seem to be anyone at all standing behind them. Takumi also went to look, but met Leo’s glance halfway and decided to explain why there wasn’t any sign of the woman instead of checking for himself. “She’s a ninja, and she’s really good at sneaking in and out whenever necessary, but I guess I didn’t think she’d still be so agile, not after having a kid.”

“A ninja having a child and remaining employed by the royal family in what seems like a major role? How interesting.” In Leo’s mind, he was thinking about how it would be nothing short of a death sentence to remain under contract by the Nohrian royal family if someone had a child back in the day before all the death and shake-ups in who was ruling, and he couldn’t quite understand how this woman had maintained her position. “She must have someone around caring for the child while she’s here, I can’t imagine your brother allowing that in his throne room.”

Without so much as flinching, Takumi replied, “Her child’s next in line to the throne, that might have a thing or two to do with it, I’d think.”

“That wasn’t explained to me, my deepest apologies.” In the back of his mind, Leo could vaguely recall reference to there being a young prince of Hoshido somewhere, next in line to the throne and bumping the rest of the royal siblings down to have to wait longer for their chance at holding the highest role. “So it would be correct for me to assume that the child’s somewhere in the castle, being tended to by wet nurses or guards of some sort?”

“We’ll go with something like that, sure. I don’t know what Ryoma and Kagero decide to do with the kid when they’re doing official business.” Takumi motioned towards his brother on the throne with his head, reminding Leo that they needed to be getting closer to him to have a serious talk. “I know that this would work better if everyone else wasn’t missing, but we don’t have much of a choice here. We need to know what to do about you so that you’re happy, alive, and not facing any more assassination attempts like the one last night.”

Leo rolled his eyes but didn’t fight what Takumi was telling him. “I’m fairly confident that the reason for the mishap last night is because of…whatever it was Niles decided he was going to do at such a late hour. The bandits must have had their way with him, and he wouldn’t complain about it if that were the case, but now they’re trying to involve us!”

“A bandit problem?” Not meaning to overhear what was said but doing it unintentionally, Ryoma waited until he had the full attention of the two men approaching his throne before he stood up and, disregarding any sort of formality, came to meet them in the middle of the floor. “That’s odd, last I’ve heard we’ve had nothing but peace around here in the time since the war’s end. Would you mind explaining this problem in more detail? I need a full understanding to make any judgments.”

While it would have made sense for Leo, who’d been the one to see the door to the house open and had found what was once Niles’ cot destroyed with no other sign he’d been back, to explain what had been going on, Takumi had to speak on his behalf instead. With every word he added to the story, Ryoma found himself sagely nodding along, almost as if he was trying to paint the scene within his mind to get a solid grasp on what had happened. “And that’s about it, really. We found a few arrows lodged in walls but nothing else, and this guy meant a lot to Leo back before he disappeared a few weeks ago so it’s just weird his stuff was what got destroyed, not where, uh, we were sleeping.”

“Sounds to me like someone decided his time in Hoshido was over, for better or worse,” Ryoma concluded, taking Takumi’s words to heart but overall not buying any of what he’d said as actual fact. “I’m certain that there were no bandits, there was no actual break-in, there was just a man trying to put an end to what he’d gotten himself wrapped up in.”

“That could justify where Odin and Selena went as well, if that’s the case.” Thinking about the friendships forged by the people he’d been traveling with, it did bother Leo that everyone would abandon him without giving him a proper farewell, yet at the same time it seemed perfectly normal for them to make that decision. “Very well, thank you for your assurance that I don’t have people out for my head here under your reign. We can be going now, can’t we, Takumi?”

“Not so fast, why are you being so impatient while we’re here? It’s not every day that I get to walk into the throne room without having a royal reason for it.” Stretching his arms, Takumi ended up draping one of them over Leo’s shoulders, much to his apparent disgust. “Besides, we’ve still got to actually talk about what we’re going to do with you now. You’re not going to want to stay here forever, not that everyone else is gone, and we need to know what to do when you decide you’re done with being in the capital.”

His head tilting slightly to one side as he heard his brother’s words, Ryoma’s eyes went straight to looking Leo over. “You’re not serious about wanting to leave at some point, are you? There’s no guarantee that any other country out there will offer you refuge in such a hospitable manner, given who you used to be back in Nohr. Staying under our protection may be best for you.”

“Rehearsed much, hm?” There was something about how the two royals were acting that was rubbing Leo the wrong way, but he knew better than to throw Takumi off of him and storm out of the throne room. “If you have some grand plans for me, go ahead and tell them to me now, I’m eagerly waiting for them.”

“Come on, why would we have plans for you?” Takumi asked in retaliation, while Ryoma stood tall and tried to keep a neutral demeanor about himself. “We have your best interests in mind, that’s all! It’s not like we’re…not like I’m…you know, it’s not like I care that much about whether you live or die!”

Ryoma couldn’t help but chuckle at Takumi’s stammered sentence, which had gotten him mighty flustered as he spat it out. “What my brother’s trying to say here is that we don’t want to see an ally such as yourself get murdered for your family tree, which you’ve distanced yourself from in the aftermath of a poor political decision.”

“Yeah, what the king says! I’m just thinking about keeping you alive!”

“I appreciate the thought, but if I die for who I was, that’s how it’s meant to be. There’s no assurance that it wouldn’t happen living here, a stone’s throw from your regal quarters, so wherever I end up is where I’m meant to be.” Takumi’s arm was starting to feel heavy on his shoulders, yet Leo didn’t feel it was necessary to brush it off, not when he was enjoying the closeness he had with another person. “But continue on with explaining your clearly-not-real plans for me, I’m all ears.”

“The plans I’m aware of are not mine to speak, I’m afraid.” Ryoma raised a hand that pointed towards Takumi, whose face had reddened after what he’d previously said and he had yet to calm back down. “If you’re going to hear what’s to be suggested, it’ll have to come from his lips. Just know that if you go through with this plan, it has my full blessing and support.”

Leo’s mouth popped open with the sound of his tongue pressing against the back of his teeth, something he repeated several times as he waited for Takumi to say something, anything. When no such explanation was given, and the power of Ryoma’s words had begun to settle in on his heart, he finally knocked Takumi’s arm off from himself and turned to face him, seeing those bright red cheeks making him look incredibly embarrassed. “Why is this starting to sound like you’ve roped me into some far-fetched romantic plot?” he asked, looking specifically for a denial for what he’d just suggested. “Well? Care to explain to me why it sounds like your brother, the _king_ , just blessed a marriage or something similar?”

“Think of it this way, do you think any bandits would try to kill a prince?” Every word he said was forced out, his voice straining as he spoke, but it was clear that Leo had read exactly what was going on and Takumi now had to own up to it all. “It’s not a perfect solution, and it only saves you and not your friends, but they all disappeared anyway so what’s the loss there? You’ll be safe in Hoshido for the rest of your life, and—could you back up just a bit, please? You’re getting kind of, uh, close.”

When he’d been cut off, that had been when Leo had gotten right up into his face, staring him down with the tips of their noses brushing against each other. “This is infuriating, when I left Nohr I wanted to leave all things royalty behind, but now here you are, offering me safety in your country if I make the mistake of marrying into your family! Which of your sisters will it be, you’ve yet to force me to see either of them so let’s make it a surprise and save it for the wedding day, shall we?”

They stared directly into each other’s faces for what felt like hours, Leo’s darkened glare contrasting against Takumi’s clearly overwhelmed and wide eyes. Takumi was trying to say something else to explain what his thought process had been, but every time he opened his mouth all that could come out was screeches and squeals that were definite failed attempts at being words. Rather than continue to force himself to try explaining his intentions with words, he went through with it with physical force, grabbing Leo’s shoulders and pulling him closer into his body, before planting the messiest, most unexpected kiss on the lips of the man still glaring at him.

“I can’t say that was the best way to cross that bridge, but at least it’s been crossed,” Ryoma remarked, watching the two and speaking loudly enough for them to hear it. “Say the word and we’ll start planning the ceremony, even if it isn’t done out of love on both ends it’s a protection for someone who needs it.”

Whatever he’d said had been ignored by Leo, though, as his mind was racing with the realization that all of the special attention he’d been getting from Takumi hadn’t actually been because he was a former royal. It reminded him of the conversation he’d had before with Oboro and the others, about romantic interest and how Takumi didn’t seem to show any towards anyone, not even the person who wanted it most. He’d laughed then and assumed that it meant that Takumi just felt the same way he did about everyone, but he’d been pleasantly surprised to know that it meant that he felt strongly about exactly one person, and that was who he’d been kissing. That kiss was _doing_ things to him too, and when they broke apart all he could ask for was for it to happen again.

It might have been the suddenness of what had happened, or perhaps it was the relationship they’d slowly been developing since his rescue from the shack in the mountains, but Leo wasn’t entirely sure he’d complain if he got added to a different royal family, despite his desire to leave that life behind. He didn’t know how he actually felt about Takumi, and those feelings would need a lot of time to be worked out properly, but a marriage of convenience to preserve his life while he was in Hoshido? To the man he’d been sharing sleeping space with for a while? It was…definitely an option.

* * *

Over the course of several months, plans for a modest wedding were put into place, all done in the name of granting permanent protection to someone who needed it. There was never the assumption by the people of Hoshido that the wedding wasn't being done out of love, though, because all that had been made public about it was that Prince Takumi had found someone to settle down with and that he was getting married within a short period of time. When the news broke that he was marrying the former prince of Nohr, there was minor uproar that the king was able to silence by letting his people know that the union had his blessing. He wasn't saying that they were only getting married for non-romantic reasons, but explaining the full story to the public wasn't necessary in his opinion.

It was for the best that he hadn't said anything about the truth prompting the wedding, because somewhere in the planning of it all the reason for it did shift to something more romantically-charged. Perhaps it was because there was no one else for them to be spending time with, now that all of Leo’s close friends had disappeared and Oboro was missing in action and hadn't ever resurfaced; sure, Takumi knew a lot of other people but there had been reasons why he wasn't surrounding himself with them, which meant if he was with anyone that wasn't family, he was with Leo. As they were living together and had slowly grown to realize that the cots were better shared than slept in alone, it meant a lot of bonding closer together in a short period of time, which was then coupled with their wedding planning for an event that was only done so they didn't have to make any changes to what they were already doing.

To make a potentially long and tedious story short, over the course of those months spent focusing on their wedding the two of them realized that things didn't have to be being done under the label they’d personally given them. They could acknowledge how they felt about each other and make something of it, especially as they were already doing a very romantic thing in the first place. Takumi had been first to realize what he felt towards Leo wasn't just friendship or understanding, when he would catch his heart racing whenever he’d get the chance to see him sleeping, peaceful for some moment in his life. Never having thought too much about marrying for love, he began to wonder if that's what he was going to end up doing now that he actually felt something genuinely romantic towards the person he was getting married to.

On the other side of things, the idea that perhaps Takumi held romantic feelings towards him had been prominent in Leo’s mind since their kiss in the throne room, but when nothing more had come of that he’d determined it had only been done for the sake of making their want of a union look more legitimate. He still didn't know what, exactly, falling in love felt like, but as the big day drew nearer he found himself enjoying being in Takumi’s presence more than ever before, especially when they would be doing “publicity" events for the sake of the royal family and he’d be held closely to his prince, to give the impression they were in love.

Impressions held a lot of power in post-war Hoshido, and while it took some time for the public to warm up to their prince’s betrothed, by the time the wedding came to happen they were just as in love with the idea of Takumi being with Leo as, well, the men were themselves. While Leo couldn’t say that he felt anything more than respect for the man who was marrying him, it had become absolutely undeniable that Takumi felt otherwise, even if his hostile exterior wouldn’t let it show anywhere but in the comfort of the castle or the home they’d been living in. That changed on the wedding day, where for the first time Leo was able to look at _his_ prince and see a genuinely different man than the one he’d first encountered on the battlefield, the one that had taken him from a snowy hellscape and moved him into the lap of luxury he’d initially been yanked out of after the war. He was able to look in Takumi’s eyes and feel that he was giving as much warmth and affection as he was receiving, even though the union had been created merely to save his life, and he knew that the situation he’d been thrust into was ultimately for the best.

As time went on after their marriage had become official and they were now both princes of the country (to some extent), more and more of the layers of it being for protection and political gain were stripped away. They weren’t necessarily physically affectionate, and their most common interaction was short and snappish, but they were definitely in love with each other, a love that grew every chance it could. There were plenty of explosive kisses in private, and plenty more near-misses when in the public eye, and the people of Hoshido stood behind them every second of every day, no matter the backstory of one of the men involved. Things were _good_ for Leo there in Hoshido, but he wouldn’t be able to escape his past forever, no matter what.

“Did you hear the news from Nohr today?” Takumi asked one afternoon nearly a year after the wedding had taken place, seeing Leo stiffen at the desk he was working at before shaking his head. He came up behind him and placed a hand on the back of his neck, gently massaging it as he continued speaking. “Apparently the revolting got to the point of overtaking the queen, her retainers at the helm of the job.”

“This comes as no surprise to anyone, I’m afraid.” It had been so long since he’d thought about Camilla’s retainers that he was struggling to remember their names, although their faces still prominently shone in his memory. “Any word about what they’ve done with her? Revolution is bloody, and she has done nothing positive for the country, but death would be too dramatic an outcome for this.”

“No word on her current state. There seems to be a call for a new ruler to rise up and take her place, but…” Pulling his hand back, only to drape his entire body over Leo’s back, Takumi chuckled when he neither heard nor felt any sort of reaction come from underneath him. “Still no desire to go back there and become king, hm?”

The silence that fell over them was entirely Leo’s fault, as he was thinking about the possibility of returning to the country he’d left, the place that had betrayed him by letting his unprepared sister take the throne over him. The Nohrian people must have known he was still alive, given some of his more high-profile activities that he’d taken part in there in Hoshido, but would they forgive him if he went back and tried to claim what once had been rightfully his? It wasn’t guaranteed by any means, and there was always the chance that those retainers would kill him on sight if they wanted to make sure no one from the actual Nohrian royal family held the throne ever again. And now without any retainers of his own, only the ones belonging to Takumi, making the journey with so many variables at play was riskier than fleeing to Hoshido had ever been.

“No, I think I’m happier here with you than I could possibly be there,” he answered after giving the question some deep thought, trying to convince himself that what he was saying was the right choice. He _could_ become king of Nohr if he went back, but if he stayed he’d remain a prince of Hoshido, and honestly, there was no shame in wanting to forever remain a prince.

Some princes don’t become kings, but some kings do end up dead, and Leo was more than happy to stay alive, and getting to live with the prince who’d stolen his heart with a kiss was perfectly acceptable for him.


End file.
